Kidnapped Mexican soccer player beats captors

Chronicle News Services

Updated 8:43 pm, Monday, May 30, 2016

About 24 hours after he was kidnapped, Mexican soccer player Alan Pulido found himself alone with one of his captors and saw his chance. He wrestled away the man’s pistol and his cell phone and dialed Mexico’s emergency number.

Within minutes, he was free.

An official summary report of three calls to an emergency operator shows that the 25-year-old forward for Olympiakos in the Greek league threatened and beat his captor while on the phone, demanding to be told where they were.

The dramatic account of derring-do shows that Pulido — listed at 5-foot-9 and about 150 pounds — was the main actor in his own liberation in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, in contrast with initial official accounts of his rescue by police.

On a first call, with the kidnapper overpowered, Pulido peered out of a window and described the white two-story house with two cars, gray and red, parked in front.

In the next call, Pulido told the operator that state police had arrived outside. The operator told him to fire the pistol so police officers would know they were in the right spot, but Pulido said he had no bullets. He said officers themselves were starting to shoot and described his shorts and tank top so they wouldn’t confuse him with the now-unconscious captor.

Tamaulipas state Attorney General Ismael Quintanilla told a news conference that emergency services had received the call after midnight Sunday because of “a careless act by his captors.”

colleges

Cal misses golf’s final 8

The Cal men’s season ended as the Bears dropped from eighth to a tie for 10th place at the NCAA golf championships, six shots shy of the score needed to advance to match play.

The Bears were 12-over-par in the fourth and final round of stroke play at Eugene (Ore.) Country Club, finishing at 30-over. Texas won at 14-over, and eighth-place Oklahoma, the last match-play participant, was at 24-over. Illinois, LSU, USC, Vanderbilt, Oregon and South Carolina also advanced.

Lacrosse:Chris Cloutier’s goal in overtime lifted unseeded North Carolina to a 14-13 win against No. 1 seed Maryland in Philadelphia and the program’s first NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse championship since 1991.

Tennis: Cal’s doubles team of Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr lost 6-2, 6-0 to Florida’s Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan in the NCAA women’s final at Tulsa, Okla. UCLA’s Mackenzie McDonald became the first player in 15 years to pull off a double national championship, defeating Ohio State’s Mikael Torpegaard for the singles title, and teaming with Martin Redlicki to beat a Texas A&M duo in doubles. Virginia’s Danielle Collins topped North Carolina’s Hayley Carter for the women’s singles title.